Abstract

Since January 1999, more than 50 gamma ray bursts (GRBs) fields have been observed from Nainital using 1.04m Sampurnanand Telescope. Optical afterglows were detected for 27 GRB fields localized by Fermi, Swift, INTEGRAL, HETE-II and BeppoSAX. These optical observations along with other multi-wavelength afterglow data were used to understand the degree of collimation, nature of the surrounding environments and progenitors of these energetic cosmic explosions. Newly installed 1.3m telescope at Devasthal and the upcoming 3.6m optical telescope along with the photometric and spectroscopic back-end instruments will further be very helpful in the near future towards understanding the stellar explosions and their host galaxies in more detail.